The dragon’s enormous body pierced through the clouds, like a dolphin through the water’s surface. His exposed scales on the head glittered in the moonlight.
With his message to the town delivered, he had only one last thing to do while waiting for the turmoil in the town to calm down.
‘It’s finally time to visit that damn fortress and close the path to the nether.’
He flapped his wings covered in fiery veins and glowing runes, quickly vanishing on the horizon. His black volcanic armour shone with bright yellow paths.
His eyes were set upon the red pillar of energy piercing through the clouds and painting the night sky in red.
‘No, what am I doing? My mana is not full, and my armour is damaged. I can’t risk dying there. What if there are more high demons, maybe even more powerful than the one I fought with.’ he couldn’t help but feel conflicted about how much he had risked his life during his short life as a dragon. His draconic heart longed for some peace of just sleeping in his lair for weeks, sprawling on a small mountain of gold.
After getting his skull cracked with likely brain bleeding, he realised his mortality, ‘What if it was stronger, destroying my brain… I need to stop being reckless and plan more… I should prepare before going into that fortress, getting myself to the peak shape.’
Vesuvius tilted his wings, changing his direction towards the white peaks reaching above the clouds. The snow-covered peaks reflected the red light.
His scales were near impregnable against attacks around his level, so he knew their biggest weakness. It was pure physical blunt trauma that was too strong to get entirely suppressed by the scales and runes on them, potentially causing severe internal injuries, ‘Luckily, I know how to fix it… at least partially.’
POV GlowingZeus:
Piles of demon bodies were littered through the forest under the large cliff. Trees were burned and destroyed, the ground black from fires and craters littered its surface, making it look like the moon’s surface. Dozens of masked figures walked between them, their shiny masks glittering in the red light.
Zeus wearing his black robe and polished wooden mask, stood on top of a dead lesser demon, its fur-covered red body bleeding from multiple large holes, his eyes reading through his messages.
“Hey, sis, have you heard some changes are going on in the town? Mobs are fighting against each other. It looks like our faction will gain lots of influence in this barony after our boss destroyed the demon army attacking the town.”
His shorter sister standing next to him with her long blonder hair, looked worried, “I just feel that such big actions will bring more attention than what is good.”
Suddenly the dragon fell from the sky, thick clouds of smoke following him as he landed, the surrounding terrain shaking. All of the eyes looked at the large black body hidden in the smoke.
The wyrm moved fast, unfitting of its large size, quickly entering the dark tunnel in the cliff and the yellow light passing through the smoke illuminated the whole cave.
POV Alesia:
Alesia shivered, looking at a piece of parchment put on top of a simple writing desk. She squirmed, getting comfortable on her cushioned chair. She was in a small room made out of large chiselled bricks of red granite that separated it from the large cave chamber outside.
Heavy steps echoed from the main tunnel, her body tensing up as she gripped the small silver dagger with white glowing runes on its shiny mirror-like surface. She couldn’t help but shake, expecting a giant demon to enter, doing unspeakable things with her to torture her.
She couldn’t even properly sleep with the sound of battle and explosions coming from the outside, so she just kept looking at the blueprint for the whole night.
Her blood suddenly flared up, all of her fear vanishing, her grip on her dagger strengthening, the sound of creaking coming from it. Her reptilian eye was dimly shining as she pointed the dagger towards the doors.
Suddenly the powerful, blazing hot yet familiar aura flooded her room, drowning her body in a burning yet cozy feeling. It was like sitting in front of the fireplace, hot yet comfortable.
She lowered her dagger as her fear vanished, ‘With the dragon home, there is no way that any demon would dare to enter this place.’
She felt even kinda silly with the small dagger in her hand; that wouldn’t even be enough to work as a toothpick for the dragon.
“Alesia, I have work for you! It is time for you to engrave runes into my bones.” the cold voice shook her whole room, the wooden shelf shaking with a few small trinkets on it falling down.
‘Finally!’ her eyes glittered, a smile growing on her face as it was time to come closer to finishing her masterpiece.
Her eyes fell on the sharp-looking large tools and blades lying in the corner of her room. Red blood stains were still on its edge after her last experiment on her good draconic friend.
“Yes, your highness, I will get my tools ready!” Alesia skipped away, grabbing the tools and putting them into a wooden crate bigger than her. She bent her knees and lifted the large box with little to no effort.
She felt excited but at the same time worried that something would go wrong as cutting so deep into the body was not something she knew how to do. There were still other big questions, like how she would get through the hard dragon scales.
She kicked the doors of her room open, almost sending them flying from their hinges. Two glowing reptilian eyes welcomed her, a feeling as if something gazed upon her soul spreading through her body.
She shuddered, immediately retreating away, as the immense heat, much larger than before, blazed through the door, bright yellow light shining through. Sweat ran down her temple, her eyes growing wide as she squealed.
“This is impossible. The runes are stronger again!”